The number of pols calling for Attorney General Eric Holder’s head over the Fast and Furious gun running scandal continues to multiply. As do the number of weapons “recovered” from the program’s “customers.” foxnews.com confirms that two out of the 108 weapons confiscated during a recent drug bust have been traced to the ATF’s “Guns for Goons” program. In this case, the law enforcement effort was called “Operation Pipeline,” led by Arizona Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. azcentral.com reports that the Sheriff’s Office busted a Sinaloa Cartel member muling $2 million worth of heroin. Oddly, the drug thug’s arrest revealed a capture and release policy . . .
The Sheriff’s Office said it was the second time the suspect had been arrested in three weeks. The suspect was initially arrested Oct. 13 during a warrant roundup of Operation Pipeline Express, which authorities described as the dismantling of one of the biggest drug-smuggling operations uncovered in Arizona.
At the time, the suspect, whose name is expected to be made public this afternoon, was released into Mexico because he was not a main target of the Pipeline operation, the sheriff’s statement said.
The fact that the dismantled drug running ring was a Sinaloan enterprise is significant; the cartel has been the Mexican government’s ally against Los Zetas. It adds credence to rumors that Mexico has shifted policy, attacking their former friends ahead of the 2012 elections. The move attempts to prove the PRI’s anti-cartel purity—and discourage Sinaloa cartel members from spilling the beans on governmental collusion.
America has a horse in this race too. They’ve been backing the Mexicans who’ve been backing (or at least not attacking) the Sinaloans. In the wake of the Fast and Furious scandal, the administration is also making moves to distance themselves from the dirty dealing which led to the [supposedly] anti-gun running gun running op.
For one thing, our sources tell us that the U.S. and Mexican governments have put a price on the head of Sinaloa jefe Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman. They’ve also launched a PR campaign to demonize the drug lord (who, it must be said, is plenty damn demonic).
For another, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer doubled down on the administration’s rationale behind Fast and Furious. AFP reports that Breuer told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT MEXICAN GUN SMUGGLING!
“It is clear that we need more tools to get those people who are buying the guns and illegally transporting them to Mexico,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. “We need to stop the flow.”
You want chutzpah? The man repping the Bureau responsible increasing the flow of U.S. gun store guns to Mexican drug cartels—by some 2000 weapons in just 10 months—is bitching about Mexican gun smugglers. The same man who knows damn well that U.S. military weapon sales to Latin America are the cartels’ main source for firearms.
And how about Breuer’s reliance on a the same thoroughly discredited stat that the ATF used to begin Operation Fast and Furious? Downsized for extra plausibility.
According to Justice Department figures, in the past five years 94,000 weapons have been recovered from Mexican drug cartels, of which 64,000 — 70 percent — come from the United States.
Yet currently the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), a division of the Justice Department, is not permitted to “receive reports about multiple sales of long guns, of any kind of semiautomatic weapon or the like,” Breuer said.
“Very few hunters in the United States or sports people and law-abiding people really need to have semiautomatic weapons or long guns,” he said.
Breuer said that if US officials were notified then they could keep track of the powerful weapons.
US officials should also be able to “forfeit the weapons and the inventories of gun dealers who knowingly sell their guns to criminals,” Breuer said.
Never mind Eric Holder’s perjury about his knowledge of Fast and Furious. This is the most damning testimony to date. Breuer is shamelessly admitting the AG’s bias against gun ownership and gun owners and suggesting that gun control is responsible for the ATF’s “botched sting.” Well that and a “neutered” ATF (thank you NRA).
The Obama administration doesn’t “get it.” They are directly responsible for a program that contributed to the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and U.S. Customs and Immigrations Agent Jaime Zapata and dozens of Mexican nationals. It’s not that the ATF did too little. It’s that they did too much.